From the desk of Holly & Tinsel, Co-Chairs of the North Pole Special Events Division... 📜✍️🎄✨

HOLLY & TINSEL’S OFFICIAL 30-DAY COUNTDOWN BULLETIN ✨🎄

📢 ATTENTION EVERYBODY: Today marks exactly 30 DAYS until the Second Annual Touch a Truck event explodes into Coal City! This is our ultimate, all-inclusive master information guide! We know it is a long post, but it lays out absolutely every major attraction, location map, food vendor, and schedule detail happening on July 11th. Please read this in its

entirety so you don't miss a single second of the action! Once you've read it all, please give us a like and share at the end so everyone in our community can take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime event! 🗺️👇

HO-HO-HOLD ON TO YOUR SANTA HATS! 🎅☀️

Reporting live from the warm-weather workshop, it’s Holly and Tinsel—your favorite event-planning elves! 🙋‍♂️🧝‍♀️ We just stepped away from wrapping presents to drop a massive announcement!

Today marks exactly 30 DAYS until the Second Annual Touch a Truck event explodes into Coal City! This incredible day is the grand culmination of our spectacular 4th of July week and our community's massive celebration of our country’s historic 250th Birthday! So come

on out, bring the whole family, and let’s keep the patriotic celebration rolling high! 🇺🇸🦅🎆

Santa will be here! He's traded in his heavy velvet coat for his official North Pole Resort-Wear and he is ready to catch a summer break right here with you! 🌴🍦🕶️ Be sure to get a picture with Santa in his festive summer threads! 📸

Here is the official sleigh-full of fun we are packing into the park:

📅 DATE: July 11th, 2026

⏰ TIME: 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM

📍 LOCATION: Coal City Lions Club / Lions Park (460 S. Illinois Street)

🚗 PARKING: Parking will be available all around the Coal City Lions Park neighborhood! 💰 ADMISSION: 100% FREE community event!

📸 LOOKING BACK & LOOKING FORWARD! 📸 Take a look at some of these incredible pictures from our 2025 event attached below! We had an absolute blast seeing the pure joy on everyone's faces. We are looking to create even more magical, memorable moments together in 2026, so make sure your cameras and phones are fully charged for July 11th! 🌟✨👇

10:00 AM GRAND OPENING CEREMONY Make sure you are there right at the start! The entire day kicks off promptly at 10:00 in the morning with a powerful presentation by the US Marine Color Guard and the singing of our National Anthem. Let's start the day strong and proud! 🫡🦅

Here is what Santa's "Event Crew" has lined up for you:

INTRODUCING THE MAD GHOSTS GAUNTLET (FIELD 1) History is being made right here on July 11th! For the FIRST TIME EVER in Grundy County, we are unleashing an attraction that has never been seen before in our community!

We are incredibly honored to introduce The Mad Ghosts Gauntlet, brought to you directly by the elite Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment out of Joliet—proudly known by their nickname, the Mad Ghosts! 🪖⚓💪

⚠️ ATTENTION: This highly intense, heart-pounding demonstration of pure military strength, agility, blistering speed, and tactical teamwork will start promptly at NOON! 12:00 PM Sharp! 🔥

As part of this epic gauntlet challenge, our Marines will actually be pulling massive trucks right down Illinois Avenue! 🚛💨 You have never witnessed a jaw-dropping display of pure power like this locally!

The energy is going to be absolutely electric! So make sure you grab a snack at the food court, something to drink, and head on over to Field 1 by noon so you don't miss a single second of this historic first! Plus, all day long, you can get hands-on with their real Tactical Humvees featuring mounted .50 Caliber Machine Guns! 🌭🥤🗺️

We are absolutely packing the park with heavy metal, roaring engines, and enough sirens to

be heard all the way across the region! 🚛🔊 Come out and cheer as loud as those roaring engines and sirens! Let's cheer on those Mad Ghosts during this incredible Gauntlet Challenge and show our elite Marines the absolute maximum support from everyone in our community! 🇺🇸💪

🏰 BOUNCE CITY (FIELD 2) 🏰 We are completely taking over Field 2 with FIVE massive interactive attractions:

• 🪖 The 45ft Vertical Rush Patriot Challenge Obstacle Course – Race your friends to the finish!

• ⚡ The Thunderdome – High-energy bouncing built just for the older kids!

• 🧸 The Toy Town Playground – A dedicated, safe bouncing zone just for the toddlers (ages 5 and under)!

• ⛳ 9-Hole Inflatable Golf – Put your mini-golf skills to the test!

• 🎪 The 4-in-1 Carnival Game – Fun and challenges for the whole family!

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⚠️ HOW BOUNCE CITY LINES WILL WORK: To keep our kids completely safe while jumping, the maximum capacity inside Toy Town and the Thunderdome is 20 people tops! Because of this, we will be setting families up in groups of 20 at a time for those two attractions. Attendees will be lining up just like you would line up for a massive roller coaster or a ride at a local amusement park! Thank you in advance for your patience as our event crew keeps the lines moving safely and smoothly! 2️⃣0️⃣ 🎢🎟️🤸‍♂️

🏎️ HIGH-PERFORMANCE SHOW CARS 🏎️ Get ready for a high-performance horsepower haven! We are thrilled to announce that Randy Reese will be there with his roaring Street Stock Grundy County Speedway racing car! 🏎️🏁 You can also marvel at "The War Party"—the legendary 1963 Pontiac LeMans Super Stock Dragster—alongside custom trucks from D'Arcy Chevrolet and D'Orazio Ford! 🔥

🎟️ WIN A CLASSIC MUSCLE CAR! 🎟️ As part of the high-performance show cars area, we have a mind-blowing opportunity for you! Be sure to get your raffle ticket to get a chance to win the Morris Lions 2026 raffle car—a jaw-dropping 1972 Dodge Challenger! 🤯🔥

This classic, non-numbers-matching custom build is an absolute head-turner. It features a roaring 440 big block engine swap paired with a classic Pontiac 350 component setup, a 4-barrel carb, automatic transmission, and straight pipes for that absolute maximum muscle car rumble! It’s beautifully wrapped in iconic Plum Crazy paint with a super clean, pristine white vinyl interior! 💜💨

Every single cent raised goes directly back into funding the Lions' critical local community projects, sight, and hearing programs. Don't skip your chance to drive home a legend while supporting an incredible cause! 🙌

🚒 HOMETOWN HEROES 🚓 Honk the horns and meet our hometown first responder

heroes from Grundy, Will, and Kankakee counties! Come show your support for the incredible local Fire, Police, Sheriff, EMA, and emergency personnel keeping our communities safe every single day! Check out colossal commercial trucks and heavy machinery right up close—plus Mark Wills’s humongous "Five-Story, 10-Bedroom" Combine! 🚜🌾

📍 THE ILLINOIS AVENUE TRUCK LINEUP 📍 Get ready for a colossal concrete runway! All of these spectacular, jaw-dropping big rigs, high-performance show cars, and heavy machinery will be perfectly lined up right on Illinois Avenue for you to explore up close and personal! 🗺️🚛

📻 LIVE LOCAL BROADCAST 📻 WCSJ Radio Morris’s Kevin Schramm will be broadcasting

live on-site from 10:00 AM to noon! They'll be bringing the local airwaves right into the heart of the action, sharing live interviews, updates, and the massive sounds of the event across the region! 🎤📻📡

🍔 THE FEEDING FRENZY 🍔 Come hungry! Be sure to bring your cash and debit cards for our incredible Feeding Frenzy area, which includes:

• 🔥 Wood-fired eats from BBQ & Baker

• 🍕 Local slices from Rosati's Pizza

• 🍦 Sweet Treats and Tasty Eats

• 🥨 Auntie Anne's pretzel truck

• 🧁 Nothing Bundt Cakes

🎨 FREAKY FUN FACES PAINTING 🎨 Right next to the action, we are thrilled to welcome Freaky Fun Faces! They will be on-site painting spectacular, festive images on all faces to keep the patriotic spirit rolling high! 🇺🇸✨ (Note: There will be a per-face charge for face painting).

🎒 QUICK ELF TIPS FOR THE DAY 🎒 To make sure your family has the absolute best day ever, here is what the North Pole crew recommends bringing along:

• ☀️ Sunscreen & Hats: It’s summer camp style for Santa, so protect those cheeks from the sun!

• 🪑 Lawn Chairs & Strollers: Perfect for setting up camp near Field 1 to watch the Marine Truck Pull at noon.

• 🎧 Ear Protection: It gets beautifully loud when the big rigs blow their horns! If you have little ones with sensitive ears, bringing a pair of headphones is a great idea.

• 🐾 Leave Pets at Home: For the absolute safety and comfort of your furry friends, please leave all pets at home (certified service animals are always welcome). July can bring scorching summer heat, and walking on hot pavement isn't fair to their sensitive paws. Plus, with roaring engines, loud sirens, and massive crowds, there is just way too much excitement. We want to ensure no animals get startled, overheated, or scared, keeping both your beloved pets and our attendees completely safe and happy! 🐕☀️🏠

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🚻 RESTROOMS & HAND WASHING STATIONS 🚻 We have plenty of facilities placed all around the park to keep everyone clean and comfortable:

• Standard restrooms are located right over by the Pavilion by Field 1.

• Porta-potties and hand washing stations will be available in right field of Field 1.

• Full indoor bathrooms are located inside the air-conditioned Coal City Lions Hall.

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❄️ COOLING STATION: If the summer heat gets a little too toasty, don't worry! We have the air-conditioned Lions Hall open as a designated cooling and hospitality hub. ❄️🏠

💎 OUR SHINING DIAMOND PARTNERS 💎 An event this massive and 100% FREE doesn't just happen by magic—it takes an incredible village! Holly and Tinsel want to give the biggest elf shout-out to our premier Diamond Partners who powered the sleigh to make this entire day possible:

• ⚙️ Bob's Advanced Auto and Tire

• 🚚 Cardinal Transport

• 🦁 Coal City Lions Club

• ⚡ Constellation Energy

• 🏗️ D Construction

• 🚛 Hoffman Transportation

• ⚓ Mad Ghosts (Weapons Co, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment - Joliet)

• 🦁 Morris Lions Club

• 💳 SOCU (Streator Onized Credit Union)

• ☀️ Sublime USA

• 📻 WCSJ Radio Morris

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Please support these amazing businesses and organizations that do so much for our communities! 🙌✨

The countdown is officially ON! Set your reminders for July 11th, because this is going to be HUGE! 🔔👇

📢 HELP HOLLY AND TINSEL SPREAD THE WORD! Please LIKE and SHARE this post right now so everyone can see it and be able to attend Touch a Truck on July 11th! Let's pack the park for this once-in-a-lifetime celebration! 🚀✨

See you in 30 days! 👋🎄 - Holly & Tinsel 🧝‍♂️🧝‍♀️✨